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Lindale · 10-01-2008, 11:52 AM

I just remembered something. The other week our school had a symposium thingy on speculative literature, headed by those "regarded" as "canon" of our country's spec lit. (Which is kinda absurd, how will you establish a canon of a very young genre?)

They regard Tolkien as "The" great writer of the quest archetype, but attacked the poor freshman who dared say that after Tolkien, people like Paolini are nutcases, Rowling a particularly good marketer, etc. Now I don't really know too much about it, but I thought they were too harsh on the kid, and besides, the kid does have a point about Paolini (I do think that they marketed the fact that the kid is a kid, not the story). They said something like, "Get over it, kid, Tolkein (he pronouned it "kein") is dead and won't be publishing anything else." And that moment I wanted to throw at his face my new copy of CoH.

He raised good points about the favoritism of the academia of realism over speculative lit. That those considered gods and goddesses of Philippine literature are just realists, which at the end of the day is just a genre. That we should be more "open" to them, that we should also give them space in our Creative Writing classes. They cited instances when in those CW classes, their works were dismissed on basis of genre.

I don't know about everyone else, but I think at the end of the day, JRRT and the mythologies and the Latin American marvelous realists are exceptions to my favorite read, which is realism, a portrait of everyday life as it happens to random people. I think I still belong to the generation which says that fantasy and sci-fi, with very few exceptions, are simply escapism from the mundanity of everyday things. (But when you think of it, a realist piece depicting a culture far different from yours will be the same thing isn't it? My point is that if I decide to read say Mineko Iwasaki's Geisha I wouldn't be fancying demons and flying dragons, but a culture with dancing ladies in colorful silk dresses and tea ceremonies, all that which is different from what I normally see.)

(What the hell am I doing in BD then?

)

10-01-2008, 11:52 AM	#660
Lindale Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: midway upon... in a forest dark Posts: 975	stuff from a spec-lit forum I just remembered something. The other week our school had a symposium thingy on speculative literature, headed by those "regarded" as "canon" of our country's spec lit. (Which is kinda absurd, how will you establish a canon of a very young genre?) They regard Tolkien as "The" great writer of the quest archetype, but attacked the poor freshman who dared say that after Tolkien, people like Paolini are nutcases, Rowling a particularly good marketer, etc. Now I don't really know too much about it, but I thought they were too harsh on the kid, and besides, the kid does have a point about Paolini (I do think that they marketed the fact that the kid is a kid, not the story). They said something like, "Get over it, kid, Tolkein (he pronouned it "kein") is dead and won't be publishing anything else." And that moment I wanted to throw at his face my new copy of CoH. He raised good points about the favoritism of the academia of realism over speculative lit. That those considered gods and goddesses of Philippine literature are just realists, which at the end of the day is just a genre. That we should be more "open" to them, that we should also give them space in our Creative Writing classes. They cited instances when in those CW classes, their works were dismissed on basis of genre. I don't know about everyone else, but I think at the end of the day, JRRT and the mythologies and the Latin American marvelous realists are exceptions to my favorite read, which is realism, a portrait of everyday life as it happens to random people. I think I still belong to the generation which says that fantasy and sci-fi, with very few exceptions, are simply escapism from the mundanity of everyday things. (But when you think of it, a realist piece depicting a culture far different from yours will be the same thing isn't it? My point is that if I decide to read say Mineko Iwasaki's Geisha I wouldn't be fancying demons and flying dragons, but a culture with dancing ladies in colorful silk dresses and tea ceremonies, all that which is different from what I normally see.) (What the hell am I doing in BD then? ) __________________ The heart does things for reasons Reason itself cannot comprehend. - Blaise Pascal Legal Madness.